Can anyone give me the name and or number of a company that can provide me with aluminum tubing / pipe suitable for beams?
Thanx in advance....
Eric
Jolly Roger
I think tubing is square and piping is round or is it tubing is measured from the inside diameter and piping is the exterior diameter,better check before you end up with 40ft of the square stuff
Hi there, I work in an fabrication shop and I order both tubing and pipe on a regular basis.
Pipe: Round section (duh!), measured with the inside diameter but around 10", the measure becomes outside diameter. Pipe is designed to carry fluids (liquid, gases, vapor).
Therer are a few wall thickness but for aluminium, I think that you can only have Ced 20, Ced 40 and Ced 80. Pipe can be purchase at an industrial plumbing supply. Finally, there are fittings available for Pipes ,like elbow and flanges.
Tubing is designed for a mechanical or structural purpose. It havee round, square or rectangular sections. It is also called HSS for Hollow structural section or mechanical tubing.
The dimension are always quoted for the outside wall. You can quote the structural pipe with ED-ID or ED-WT where ED is exterior diameter, ID interior diameter and WT is wall thickness.
These is one major exception: Hydraulic system use tubing instead of pipe and it is quoted by the external diameter and the wall thickness.
One last thing: All pipes are usually available in 21 feet length and mechanical tubing is usually available in 24 feet length.
NEVER WELD AN ALUMINIUM CROSSBEAM IN THE MIDDLE. The aluminium is usually 6061T6 alloy and it looses 40% of it strength at the weld. If you have to weld a crossbeam, have a continuous central section and extend it on both sides.
You can purchase Structural tubing at your local industrial steel supplier
Price wise, they are about the same price but the piping is quoted be the foot and structural steel is quoted by the pound.
One last thing: You can also purchase a raw mast extrusion. or a used mast. This will allow you to have a build it rail for your trampoline.
I have also saw peoples using light poles but the wall are very thick and they have to be machined. It might be an idea for a much larger boat.